Graf basks in the long reign

Wimbledon '96: All-conquering champion captures her 100th title as she tames Sanchez Vicario again

The longer she reigns, the more invincible she becomes. With a 6-3 7-5 win over Arantxa Sanchez Vicario in the final of the women's singles here yesterday, Steffi Graf passed a new set of landmarks on her way to tennis immortality. It was her seventh Wimbledon title, her 20th in Grand Slams, and her 100th in all.

Perhaps inevitably, the match failed to live up to the standards of the epic these two produced in last year's final, still less the final at Roland Garros a month ago which Graf won 10-8 in the third. It had its moments, notably in the second set when Sanchez, from two breaks down, belatedly found the inspiration that she depends upon more than Graf, but for the most part the Spaniard made too many unforced errors for her opponent ever to be under pressure for long.

Graf has now won all five of the last Grand Slam tournaments she has entered, starting with the French Open last year. After adding the 1995 Wimbledon and US Open titles, she missed this year's Australian because of injury but has come back to triumph again in Paris and now here.

It is an astonishing record, all the greater for being achieved against a background of constant physical and emotional stress. Seemingly never free of injury or illness, Graf came into this Wimbledon nursing the knee injury that forced her to pull out of the warm-up tournament in Eastbourne, and ended it clearly suffering with a cold. And as long as her father Peter remains in a German prison while he waits to face charges of tax evasion on her earnings, her successes will always be bitter-sweet.

Only Margaret Court, with 24 titles, is ahead of Graf on the Grand Slam list. As far as Wimbledon is concerned, Graf's win ties her at third on the all-time list with Dorothy Chambers, who was ruling the All England Club in the early 1900s. One ahead of them on eight titles in Helen Wills Moody, and above them all stands Martina Navratilova with nine. Graf claims to have no interest in any of this, but it will be fascinating for the rest of us to see whether she can at least go on to equal Navratilova. She is still only 27.

To begin with, the weather looked as if it would spoil things yet again. The second week has been as disrupted as anyone can remember and it seems certain that play will go into a third. The two finalists had just started knocking up when the rain came, and it was three minutes to three, nearly an hour after the scheduled start, before the match was under way. Mercifully there were no further interruptions.

For Sanchez to stop history in its tracks she needed to make the sort of quick start that she managed when taking the first set last year. Then, her touch and fluency were admirable. This time, after missing out on two break- points in Graf's opening service game, she mixed good and bad in roughly equal measure, hitting too deep too often in an attempt to limit the damage Graf could inflict with her ferocious forehand.

The only break in the first set came when Sanchez served at 1-2. Graf remained in control, and when she went into a 4-0 lead in the second, the match was turning into a bit of let-down.

That, however, was when we started to see Sanchez at her best. With Graf serving at 4-1, an astonishing point cost her the game. Sanchez put up a lob and Graf, incredibly, completely missed her smash. She recovered to spin round and get the ball over the net, but when Sanchez sent it back, Graf could only shovel it wide. The tension was mounting. Spanish shouts of encouragement echoed round the stands. In spite of her superiority, Graf was still vulnerable and Sanchez sensed it and started testing her for the first time in the match.

With Sanchez digging in, Graf served for the match at 5-4. Two double faults undermined her, and Sanchez earned herself a break point after pummelling the Graf backhand until eventually she was forced into error. Then Graf did what Sanchez had been much more guilty of and hit long. It was back to 5-5.

Sanchez, however, only seems to function properly when she is up against it. Perhaps she relaxed too much, but her next service game was a disaster, and she lost it to love. Graf was not going to let her off again. At 6- 5, she lost the first point, recovered to 30-15, before a weak Sanchez backhand gave her two match points. She only needed one, Sanchez sending a forehand return of serve into the bottom of the net. After an hour and 28 minutes it was a rather tame ending.

"It feels pretty awesome right now," Graf said. "There is a lot of joy inside me. I felt in control most of the time, but even when it got to 5-5 in the second I still felt I was going for my shots. I still felt good out there. Physically it always seems amazing to me that I came through. I don't know how I keep doing it, but I do."

Henman diary, page 30

Graf's roll of honour

Wimbledon: 1988, 1989, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1995, 1996

Australian Open: 1988, 1989, 1990, 1994

French Open: 1987, 1988, 1993, 1995, 1996

US Open: 1988, 1989, 1993, 1995

Olympic champion: 1988

Other career titles: 79

Total titles: 100